07 March 2012

"S. Klein" appears in the tile before the door of 68 Clinton Street, now Falai, a falafel joint.

This is perhaps the last scrap of evidence of the once mighty position Klein's department stores once held in the city. The local chain was founded by immigrant Sam Klein before World War I, in a small, second-floor space on Union Square. That location expanded greatly, and for many years, Klein's was famously associated with Union Square. It had a huge sign, two stories tall, that said, grandly, "S. Klein on The Square." The stores' stock and trade was discount good. Housewives knew you went to Klein's for bargains. The shop's logo was a carpenter's square, for some reason.

Klein died in 1942. His family sold the business in 1946, and thereafter it passed through the hands of a few corporations. The Klein stores, of which there were once 19, continued to do well throughout the 1950s. By 1959, however, they began to register regular deficits. And price wars with Ohrbach's and J.W. Mays, two other discounters on Union Square, did the chain harm. The entire outfit shut down for good in 1975.

The Clinton Street shop very likely closed some years before then.

Klein's was immortalized in "Guys and Dolls," when Miss Adelaide sang "At Wanamaker's and Saks and Klein's/A lesson I've been taught/You can't get alterations/On a dress you haven't bought."

The best S. Klein relic is in Newark - the entire store, complete with multi-story neon sign styled very similarly to the one that used to be at Union Square. Check'er out:http://www.flickr.com/photos/sheepguardingllama/1570610755/

Just wanted to follow up on the last comment about the Newark store. The whole block, including that wonderful HUGE neon sign, are to be demolished soon to make way for the new Prudential building. Sigh...

The original, running Jeremiad on the vestiges of Old New York as they are steamrolled under or threatened by the currently ruthless real estate market and the City Fathers' disregard for Gotham's historical and cultural fabric. Est. January 2006.Contact Me

About Me

I have lived in New York City since 1988 and earn my bread as a writer. I began this blog in January 2006. Beyond that, don't be so nosy.
"I am not a pessimist; to perceive evil where it exists is, in my opinion, a form of optimism."
—Roberto Rossellini